JONES: Sturmay's young guns take 'something to be proud of' from provincial curling championship run

SPRUCE GROVE — It was a whale of a way to win but a lousy way to lose.

Karsten Sturmay made a great freeze to sit shot rock with his last shot in the sixth end and believed he had come through in the clutch to bail out his team.

“We made a pistol,” he said of his shot. “That freeze on my last rock was extremely clutch.”

Then Brendan Bottcher calmly went to the other end and made the shot of shots to score four and take away the amazing story he and his University of Alberta Golden Bears team had been writing at the Boston Pizza Cup provincial curling championship at the Grant Fuhr Arena.

“His shot was something else again. But that’s sport,” said Sturmay of the sixth-end shot that put four points on the scoreboard and made it 7-2 in what turned out to be a 9-3 win for Bottcher. “Absolutely that was not a 9-3 game. I couldn’t have asked for more for the way the boys performed.”

Sturmay was the youngest skip ever in the get-to-the-Brier event. With his team of Tristen Steinke, 22, Jason Ginter, 24, and Brett Winfield, 23, their average age is 22 and a half.

Down 2-0 and then 3-0 to Bottcher after the first two ends of the 1-2 game Saturday night, Sturmay came off a blanked first end and stole one on the second end of the final.

So there was that.

Bottcher bounced back with a pair in the third end and stole one for a 3-1 lead after four.

But it was his stunning shot, an in-off double off his own rock in the 12-foot by the boards for four that won Alberta in the sixth end.

Up 7-2 after six, it was a countdown to Bottcher’s second straight trip through the event undefeated.

Sturmay ripped the Velcro after the ninth end with the score 9-3.

Bottcher, who lost to the kids in their only previous meeting at the early season World Curling Tour event at the Crestwood, scored a 10-7 win over Sturmay in A Event Thursday and a 7-6 win in the 1-2 game Saturday evening.

Sturmay made it to the final after defeating Daylan Vavrek in the Sunday semifinal.

Vavrek’s Sexsmith squad, seeded ninth in the 12-team event, either had major nerves involving their first national television experience or were still rattled from the night before, when they came within a last-rock draw to the button on the 10th end from blowing a 6-1 lead after six to Charlie Thomas.

In the first end, from the bottom of the line-up to the top, lead Even Asmussen, second Maksymetz, third Carter Lautner and skip Vavrek all completely missed one shot to give up three.

After a blank on the second end, the 21-year-old Sturmay and the 24-year-old Vavrek traded singles and then deuces to keep the three-point spread through six ends. Up two going into the 10th, Sturmay ran him out of rocks to win 7-5 get a third shot at Bottcher in the triple-knockout event.

Sturmay, who is actually from Leduc and still lives there, said despite the loss in the final it was a dream week.

“It has been an awesome experience,” said the only skip to win three Alberta Junior titles and the youngest to ever skip in the provincials. “To have been a junior and put together such a good run is something to be proud of.”

The season isn’t over for the team.

“The U Sports nationals are going to be held in Leduc March 23-28. The winner will represent Canada at the Universiade.

“The Leduc event is going to be a pretty good event. There will be the national wheelchair event at the Curling Club, the college championships in one of the other arenas and the university event in the main arena, all in the same complex. And it will be followed by the Canadian Mixed Doubles Championships.”

With his team of Tristen Steinke, 22, Jason Ginter, 24, and Brett Winfield, 23, the outfit will be breaking up as a U of A team. Steinke and Ginter are graduating. Winfield, who transferred from the U of A to NAIT and won’t be playing with the team at the U Sports nationals later this season, will be replaced by Chris Kennedy from Sturmay’s three-time champion Alberta junior championship team at lead.

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